Summer Solidarity: Policy progress, people power (and alliteration!)

Posted by Sustainable Economies Law Center3438sc on July 02, 2015

After our month-long #PeoplePoweredEconomies campaign, the results are in: you rock! We continue to be motivated by a sense of both urgency and opportunity to create people powered economies everywhere, and YOU give us the inspiration and support we need to make that happen. This is what a People Powered SELC looks like:

UPDATES

Our Save Seed Sharing campaign recently counted two legislative victories in Minnesota and Nebraska, where we successfully changed those state seed laws to promote seed sharing! As a result of our advocacy, seeds will continue to be held in a commons and shared within communities to provide access to food, strengthen our connection to where our food comes from, and increase our capacity to conserve locally adapted seeds in the face of climate change. To read more about our campaign, visit our campaign website!

The CA Worker Coop Act advances! On May 22, the California State Assembly passed AB816, a major step toward making California the twelfth state to establish a legal form specifically for worker cooperatives. This campaign is building on the momentum of worker cooperative policy initiatives happening throughout the country—including a $1.2 million dollar funding initiative in New York City last summer—as the cooperative business form gains recognition as a powerful tool for economic revitalization. Read more here.

We're pleased to announce the addition of a new SELC staff attorney, Cameron Rhudy! Cameron now leads SELC’s Fellowship Program, which supports lawyers building resilient local economies. She also provides legal support to the Grassroots Finance Program and the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe Program.

Before becoming a staff attorney at SELC, Cameron opened a small law practice in Sacramento, CA while participating in SELC’s Fellowship Program. Her law practice serves small creative businesses, cooperatives, and social enterprises.

Prior to starting her own law practice, Cameron practiced health law as a legislative attorney with the California Office of Legislative Counsel. When she is not practicing law, Cameron dabbles with letterpress printing. She is member of the Big Tomato Letterpress Guild, a group of letterpress printers from Sacramento and surrounding areas.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SELC provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies.The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting! SELC is immensely grateful to Impact HUB Oakland, who cultivates, supports, and connects purpose-driven people as they pioneer solutions for a sustainable and equitable world. RSVP HERE>>

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a different way to manage public money, and to engage people in government. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives. Come learn about how this process is being used all over the world, how the Community Democracy Project is working to making this a reality in Oakland, and how you can get involved! RSVP HERE>>

SELC has a group of amazing summer interns working on policy advocacy at the city and state levels, enhancing our education and training programs for worker-owned businesses, and deepening our social impact models. But they are only here for the summer! If you're a summer intern motivated to create practical solutions for radical transformation in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond, come meet other interns from SELC, Green Collar Communities Clinic, Project Equity, and Third Plateau Social Impact Strategies! RSVP HERE >>

SELC provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies.The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting! SELC is immensely grateful to the Blueprint, a collectively-run creative space that exists to strengthen social connection, and increase creative, personal and professional potential. RSVP HERE>>

SELC provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies.The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting! SELC is immensely grateful to the Alchemy Collective Cafe, a worker-owned cooperative business in South Berkeley. RSVP HERE>>